Dallas vs. Houston (San Antonio, Beaumont, Liberty: living, versus, statistics)

[Guerilla]

A few years old.

[mpope409]

Has it really changed all that much in the past few years?

[Ron G]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

You can't go wrong with either city, both are great in their own respects. I've been to both numerous times and while both are alike in many ways, they're also equally different.

Dallas has a larger metro.
Houston has a larger city proper.

Dallas is more image conscious.
Houston is more laid-back.

Dallas has a larger arts scene.
Houston has a larger music/theatre scene.

Dallas has bad traffic.
Houston has VERY bad traffic.

Dallas is slightly more expensive.
Houston is slightly more diverse.

Dallas has a larger finance/ IT sector.
Houston has a larger oil/ natural gas sector.

Dallas is more new money.
Houston is more old money.

Dallas is more spread out.
Houston is more centralized.

Dallas has a colder winter (albeit nothing compared to the Midwest or North).
Houston has more humidity.

Dallas has a hotter summer.
Houston still has more humidity.

Dallas has more upscale shopping.
Houston has more botique shopping.

Dallas has more restaurants.
Houston has more parks.

Dallas is more concrete.
Houston is more green and lush.

Dallas doesn't have a port.
Houston has a port.

Dallas has a good public transit system.
Houston has a pathetic public transit system.

Dallas has a tourist industry.
Houston has virtually no tourist industry.

Dallas has the Cowboys.
Houston has the Texans.

Dallas feels like you need to catch up with the Joneses.
Houston feels like you should be satisfied with what you have.

FINALLY

Dallas has Chuck Norris.
Houston has George Bush.
Who would you pick in a fight?

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Quite possibly the best synopsis of these two cities I have seen. I shall certainly make this mandatory reading at the office!

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by Ron G

Quite possibly the best synopsis of these two cities I have seen. I shall certainly make this mandatory reading at the office!

And yet, fairly one sided and rather inaccurate .

[SpeedyAZ]

And yet, fairly one sided and rather inaccurate .

Please enlighten me as to what is inaccurate? And how exactly is it one sided (besides the Texans and Cowboys thing)?

[nunusguy]

The leading cultural attraction in all of N.Texas is not even in Dallas, rather the Amon Carter Museum is in Ft.Worth. And the Rangers and more importantly the Cowboys soon will be based in the Ft.Worth-Arlington metro, not the Dallas metro. And about the most fun place for a weekend in N.Texas is the Sundance Square. Oh, then there's the Texas Motor Speedway, in Ft. Worth of course.
I think its clear that Ft. Worth is now the more worthy N.Texas rep.

[Guerilla]

Everything is west of Highway 360 now. In other words, on the Fort Worth side.

[mpope409]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

Please enlighten me as to what is inaccurate? And how exactly is it one sided (besides the Texans and Cowboys thing)?

Look, I don't want it to seem like I insist on picking on you. You've been very right about a lot of things. Only I believe we've already discussed some things that aren't completely right about that compare/contrast list. I just thought that the user should know before they run off with it.

[AK123]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

Please enlighten me as to what is inaccurate? And how exactly is it one sided (besides the Texans and Cowboys thing)?

The only things I see:

Dallas has a larger arts scene.
Houston has a larger music/theatre scene.

I do know Houston has a larger theatre scene, but not sure about the music scene. Also I don't know that Dallas has a larger arts scene, Houston's is pretty big.

Dallas has a good public transit system.
Houston has a pathetic public transit system.

People from certain cities would say both cities have pathetic systems. But in comparison to Dallas, I wouldn't say Houston's is pathetic. There's much less light rail since it started out later, but the bus system is better. I use Houston's light rail to get to my job in the medical center and it works great for me.

Dallas has a tourist industry.
Houston has virtually no tourist industry.

I wouldn't say Houston has no tourist industry, though it does have less. For one thing, the Natural Science Museum is, I think, the 3rd most visited in the country. Then there's the Galleria (the Dallas Galleria was modeled after Houston's), NASA, and several other attractions.

Dallas has the Cowboys.
Houston has the Texans.

Here, I would have used good, well-known teams instead. I think there are probably a lot more Astros and Rockets fans in Houston than Texans fans.


Everything else on the list seems pretty accurate though...

[metroplex2003]

The airport situations in Houston and Dallas are similar.
Must compare Love field to Hobby, and DFW to Intercontinental.

So let's look at the comparison:
DFW is the 3rd busiest airport in the US and 6th busiest in the World. Only Chicago and Atlanta beat DFW in terms of busiest airports. Houston falls well short of the top 3.

As for Hobby vs. Love Field, the lifting of the Wright amendment should make Love Field a busier airport than Hobby. Love Field is actually bigger than Hobby with 32 gates vs. Hobby's 20 gates, but that will change as Love Field will shrink to 20 gates. However, Love Field caters to a bigger metropolitan area...DFW has 6.2 million to Houston's 5.4 million. Love Field also is the world Headquarters of Southwest, and Southwest has announced its plans to expand and grow Love field to its biggest hub in Texas over the next decade as the Wright Amendment gets loosened up.
Now international flights, Houston tops DFW in that category, I give Houston that, however, now that American has gotten a better financial footing, and with open skies agreements in the horizon, they will be in a better position to get the One World carriers to feed into the DFW hub, which is more centralized than the Houston Continental hub. Plus, Continental is a much smaller airline and has fewer resources and political muscle than American does. And with Continental still focusing on building up its international operations at Newark, Houston may continue to take a back seat to the New York City area airport Newark Liberty, which is appropriate since NYC is clearly much more of a world destination than Houston.
American's market share in NYC is less prominent despite their presence at JFK.

But make no mistake, now that Wright is loosened, DFW area has two airports as well, and there traffic is growing at both airports. Houston has essentially two area airports, at which both are growing, and the secondary one serves primarily Southwest at both airports.